Mainz vs Dortmund

Mainz will host Borussia Dortmund in the 12th round of German Bundesliga.

Mainz are in the middle of the table at 9th position, but they didn't impress me with their performance till now. Their team started the season with a lot of under 2.5 goals matches and that's the reason they are amongst the teams with less received goals, but also they are the 3rd poorest team in attack ,when we talk about scored goals. Their main players who have to be kept by Dortmund defensive players are, of course, Gbamin, Mateta and Boetius.

Dortmund are flying very high right now after they won the derby against Bayern at home with 3:2. Reus and Alcacer were the heroes for Borussia and that win not only increased their confidence, but also they have 4 points advantage of the 2nd in the table Gladbach. In CL their almost did their job after they are the leaders with 9 points and have a home game against Brugge after 4 days. Even a draw will qualify them for the next round, but we know Dortmund will not play for a point, but for the max points and 1st place in the group. Now they have to fully concentrate on the Bundesliga and Mainz. The best news for the team is that Buerki is looking to return in the starting line-up after he missed the derby against Bayern. Alcacer finally has to start as main forward, supported by Larsen, Sancho and Reus. With Delaney and Witzel in midfield they should dominate Mainz and easily have the possession.

Mainz will be without their two main goalkeepers for this game- Florian Muller and Rene Adler, so Robin Zentner is looking to be the main choice. They will also miss Niko Bungert(d), Ridle Baku(m), Gerrit Holtmann(m) and Emil Berggreen(f). On the other side Dortmund will be only without their left-back Schmelzer and the centre back Diallo is doubtful.

H2H Dortmund play very good against this opponent. Also don't forget that Borussia Dortmund was the team which ''gifted'' the survival of Mainz during the last season. Two rounds before the end, Mainz were amongst the teams which had a big chance to be relegated, but won the visit in Dortmund with 1:2 and that 3 points were vital for the club. In this game Dortmund played with their regular players, but very, very disorganized.

I expect Dortmund to win here. They have to fully concentrate on Bundesliga right now after they did their job in CL very well and still are without a loss in the domestic league. They have the best attack with 33 goals in 11 games, but strangely or not also one of the best defenses. Absolutely everything speaks about them to win against Mainz. I watched two of Mainz games this season against Bayern and Gladbach and they had so many problems in defense, also they couldn't get much of the possession and now without their main goalkeepers, Dortmund have to find ways to score much easier, mostly if they start with their best 11.